Laurie's Review
Melanie's Review
Laurie's Review:Strange Bedfellows is about as mediocre as Due South gets. Not much is memorable about it, except for the beautiful music, there are few standout scenes and the story itself doesn't capture my attention for any length of time. Maybe it's supposed to be a mini character study of Ray but it falls flat because it makes him look so bad, unlike The Ladies Man, which completely and convincingly focused on who Ray is.
Ray's pettiness and near-stalking of his ex-wife doesn't become him, and I really don't like the way he deals with his issues, most notably his marital status, and through the early part of the ep, I find myself mentally telling him to deal with it already. Stella is trying to get on with her life but he's stuck in a time warp. Even Fraser tries to tell him to come to grips with the situation but he doesn't listen. Also, I would have preferred if Stella had been introduced in a previous ep, in a professional capacity. This story was too much too soon.
Additionally, I think Stella gets a bum rap from many Due South fans. I don't have a strong opinion of her one way or another, but after Ray's behavior in Strange Bedfellows, I hardly blame her for treating him the way she does. I don't see her as the horrid bitch she's made out to be. If I had only this ep to form an opinion of Ray, it would be a very negative one.
I love the underlying story of Fraser's psychological fitness, and the scene in which Lt. Welsh tells Ray that he and Fraser have been assigned as body guards for Orsini is one of the best in the episode. Fraser feebly objects, citing several outstanding issues. Welsh replies, "No, no, no, I already talked to Thatcher. She seems to think that due to your mental state, it would be better if Turnbull stood guard." Fraser is more than a little befuddled, "My, my, my, uh, my, did she happen to elaborate on my...Sir?" You know the situation warrants concern if Insp. Thatcher deems Turnbull to be more competent.
Orsini is a smarmy character, and even though it wasn't a polite, Canadian move, I have to admit I like Fraser opening the car door on him - I would have been tempted to do the same thing. I love the little exchange that follows: Ray telling Fraser "thanks," Fraser telling him to "shh" and Ray's grin. It kind of surprises me that Stella would be attracted to someone as smooth as Orsini, but he and Ray are about as different as night and day so maybe that's the point.
Observation:Yellow rubber ducky in Fraser's office. You know, that probably doesn't help his psych evaluation. . .
Fraser touches Francesca and she seems almost oblivious to it.
Favorite Moments:The opening scene, which ends with the doctor saying maybe they should be trying a little word association; the next scene has Fraser doing just that with Ray:
Fraser: Uh, chain saw.
Ray: Massacre.
Fraser: Closet.
Ray: What kind of question is that?
Fraser: It's nothing untoward. It's just that if I say "closet," one person might say brooms and another might say carpentry.
Ray: Yeah, and I might say, "hey, you're losing your mind, Fraser."
Fraser: Well, that question has been raised only recently.Ray telling Orsini, "Oh, now you've gone and done it, the wolf's upset," after Orsini kisses Stella goodnight.
Ray pounding on the steering wheel after Stella leaves the car, followed by Fraser pointing out that he's "acting very strangely tonight," but he reassures Ray he doesn't mean that as a criticism.
Ray and Stella dancing. He's very graceful.
Lt. Welsh knocking on the window of his office door to get the attention of an apparently daydreaming Ray.
Ray telling Fraser "come on in" (to Stella's apartment) and then closing the door on him.
Ray "losing" Fraser in the hallway at Stella's apartment.
Insp. Thatcher telling Fraser about the results of the psychological evaluations. Her profile is rock solid, of course, and Turnbull's mental state was likened to a block of Swiss cheese (but that's hardly news). Fraser's is "acceptable," he's relieved, and then proceeds to ask Thatcher if she hears somebody singing.
The neck cracks from Fraser and his dad while they're discussing helping someone with problems with a woman. Is neck cracking a Season 3/4 thing? I can't think of any instances from the first two seasons.
Thatcher finding Fraser in his closet - "perhaps the tests need some refining."
Nitpicks:Ray is in such a hurry to protect Stella while Fraser throws the champagne bottle into the river, yet he doesn't tell anyone else to watch their heads. Along with that, Fraser jumping overboard. It's much too clownish and spoils whatever mood is being created in that scene.
I find it kind of odd that Fraser knows Stella's phone number, and he punches in the numbers without hesitation. Granted, time was of the essence, but it would have been much more believable if he had looked up the number or asked Francesca to get it for him.
Duesies:Stella: Uh, would your wolf be more comfortable if I sat in the middle?
Fraser: Well, perhaps. He does ordinarily enjoy a window seat.Stella: What were you doing at the restaurant, Ray? Were you stalking me?
Fraser: Ma'am, I don't think stalking would be an accurate description. . .
Stella: I'm sorry, I'm a little unclear as to how this is any of your business.Ray: Come on, you love to dance, Stella, it's. . .
Orsini: You're making a big deal of this, Stella. Why?
Stella: I'm not making a big deal out of anything. I don't want to dance.
Orsini: It wouldn't bother me.
Stella: Of course, it wouldn't bother you. I wouldn't care if it did.
Orsini: No, I meant--
Stella: Come on, Ray.
Ray: Uh, Alderman, you got a little something in your teeth.Fraser: You're both excellent dancers.
Ray: Been doing it since we were kids.
Fraser: That's odd.
Ray: Why? A lot of kids dance.
Fraser: No, I mean the champagne.Ray: Fraser, tomorrow morning you're going to have green stuff growing in your eyebrows.
Fraser: Well, you may well be right, Ray. The quality of the water is appalling.
Francesca: You know, maybe a nice hot tub bath would be the thing. The reason I mention this is because we just a got a new one at our house and it is perfect. . .
Keepership:The snowglobe on Bob's desk.
Grade: C.
Melanie's Review:There are three early season 3 episodes that focus tight attention on Ray Kowalski's character. Burning Down the House introduces a man whose life in is transition, who was very willing to take on a new identity almost as an escape from the old. Hearty and bold, he is very eager to take a lady--any lady--dancing. Eclipse gives us a deeper view. A solitary soul, he takes his dancing seriously but practices alone in his apartment. Below the blustery façade there is insecurity and low self-esteem. The love of his childhood was a girl from a higher social class, and as a child he was humiliated in front of her; despite that, he won her heart and married her--only to later divorce.
In Strange Bedfellows, the trilogy of Ray Kowalski's background is complete. We finally get to meet the adult woman who grew from that spunky, confident adolescent in the bank, and we see the shattered remains of their marriage. The character development for both Ray and Stella is touching and believable; like most real-life divorced couples, there is neither villian nor victim. Both are sympathetic, and yet both display unfortunate levels of fragility and prickliness in each other's company. They poke at one another's vulnerabilities and punch each other's buttons.
I think this is the most emotionally in-tune episode of the third season. I have absolutely no problem believing every moment of Ray and Stella's scenes together, up to and including the tender dance and hesitant, sorrowful conversation about whether he should stay the night. It was beautifully written and beautifully acted, one of the most romantic moments of the series. These two have obviously loved one another for a very long time, and at some level they love one another still; they are still trying to sort through the raw emotional wounds of the divorce.
I am pleased that they took their time to gradually introduce Stella's character and background before this episode. I had been very disappointed by the abrupt appearance of Angie Vecchio in The Edge; here, it is clear that Ray's divorced status and Stella's character had been intended from the start.
Strange Bedfellows uses one of the classic plots, that of the love-triangle. This is a very elegant and well-structured triangle, which gives me reason to appreciate this episode much more than I would normally appreciate a romance-focused episode. In addition, the central "mystery" hides a delightful last-minute twist, as the unmasking of one villain (Orsini) neatly distracts both the viewer and the heroes from the real threat (Dwayne), who had been usefully and believably inserted into the episode in the guise of a moral lesson to Ray about the limits of obsessive persistence.
The fact that Ray stalked his ex-wife while she was on a date is disturbing, indeed. I like my characters with flaws, and I think this is a big one. Kudos to the writers, and a warning glare to Ray himself. ;-)
Tom Dewey certainly had a rousing introduction, didn't he? His foot-in-mouth problem is clearly established from the start.
They missed an excellent opportunity to establish continuity with the earlier episodes. Ray described Orsini's project as, "Big time development, tearing up a lot of old housing, putting in yuppie shopping malls. That kind of stuff. The people are getting ticked off because they're getting turfed out." Fraser's own home was threatened in that way, back in One Good Man. He could have at least mentioned it.
Damon: A Canadian. You ever hear of free speech up in Canada?(Where is Mackenzie King when we need her?)
Fraser: Of course.
Mendleson: So then would you please get out of the way and let us exercise it?
Fraser: Well I would like to, but I'm afraid this situation has the potential of going beyond the boundaries of civilized behavior.
Oh, now there's a moment of irony I didn't notice before. Stella suggested a breakfast date with Ray--and earlier he was so insistant that she would never be one to get out of bed for a breakfast date. ;-)
Duesies:Huey: I'd like you to meet my new partner, Tom Dewey.
Fraser: Ah, pleased to meet you. I'd imagine you're named after the famous prosecuting attorney and former Governor of New York, Thomas Edmund Dewey.
Dewey: No, actually I was named after my uncle. He sold fish.Ray: You know, Fraser, if I want to know how to track musk ox across the tundra, fine. But when it comes to the dating habits of the Stella, I happen to be an expert.
Orsini: What do you think you're doing?
Ray: Bodyguarding.
Orsini: Well you think you could do it a little farther away?Fraser: How did you get in here?
Ray: Uh, don't leave home without it.
Fraser: It's four in the morning.
Ray: I know, but we've got some investigating to do.
Fraser: Listen, you didn't by any chance hear something strange, did you?
Ray: Like what?
Fraser: Chainsaws.
Ray: This is Chicago, Fraser, the only time people use chainsaws is when they're trying to get rid of a body.
Fraser: Right you are.Ray: Orsini! I thought I'd find you here.
Orsini: About time you showed.
Ray: Well, I hope you accept my apologies, it took me a little while to, uh, get the warrant.Dwayne: I want my wife back! She turned my wife against me, she ruined everything. Once she's gone, everything will be the way it used to be.
Ray: No, no, you can't erase it like that. The things that were said, the things that weren't said...when it's over, it's over. You got to accept that. And live with it. That's what you gotta. . . .
(Uh, Ray? You should listen to yourself.)Bob: Come on in. Shut the door, it's cold out there.
Fraser: In actual fact, it's 22 degrees Celsius.
Bob: What's that in real temperature?Fraser: Did you ever have a partner that needed your help, but you...you didn't know how to help him?
Bob: Yeah, there was the time Clete Brokelmeyer got stuck down a 40-foot crevasse and I only had a 20-foot rope...that the kind of thing you talking about?
Fraser: No, no, I was thinking more along the lines of trouble with, uh, a woman.
Bob: All right. We threw Snuffy Briggs in a snowbank a couple of times to cool his ardor. First time it didn't work. Second time he got pneumonia and it took him out of circulation for a month.
Fraser: That's a great help, dad.
Third Runner-Up Nitpick of the Week:If Welsh wanted to talk to Ray privately, why did he ask both Ray and Fraser to come with him?
Second Runner-Up Nitpick of the Week:
There was a cute and very in-character moment in the opening scene, as Thatcher interrupted Fraser's Rorschach Test to correct his response about one of the inkblots. ("Justice? I see three moths. How do you get Justice from three moths?") I absolutely believe that she might feel compelled to questions Fraser's interpretation, but I have to nitpick that she shouldn't even have been in the room--for that very reason.
Runner-Up Nitpick of the Week:
Throwing that bomb so that it would explode in the air may have saved the occupants of Stella's apartment, but falling debris could have injured or even killed people on the ground.
Nitpick of the Week:
After Orsini and his crew confessed, Stella emerged from the observation room with Welsh--but she shouldn't have been there, because she's a potential witness. No matter how betrayed she felt, there was no way she would be assigned to the Orsini case.
Second Runner-Up Moment of the Week:"Stella. Come on, come on--Stella! Stella! Ste--" Ray breaks off in mid-word, frustrated and maybe just a little bit embarrassed at his inadvertant Streetcar Named Desire quotation.
Runner-Up Moment of the Week:
Ray: Was I ever like that?
Stella: No, you always knew the line.
(A very well-crafted exchange. It's clear from Stella's glare that she's giving him a warning. Word to the wise, Ray-- she knows how to get a restraining order.)Moment of the Week:
Ray: I could stay the night.
Stella: You could.
Ray: It would be perfect.
Stella: It would be a mistake. You could stay, we could make love and it would be great, like a thousand times before. But tomorrow we'd be right back where we were this morning. Maybe a couple more regrets.
Ray: I love you.
Stella: I love you, too. Always will. But you know I'm right.
Ray: No, but it could be...
Stella: I didn't say you couldn't stay.
(Perfect. Perfectly romantic, perfectly sad. I don't think she was being manipulative, I think she was being perfectly honest.)
Dief moment:Making a nuisance of himself between Orsini and the Stella in the backseat of Ray's car. He's such an excellent judge of character!
Snack to enjoy while watching Strange Bedfellows:I'd recommend the shrimp cocktail. With champagne, of course!
Grading:
Ray & the Stella A Orsini B The bomber A+ (for surprise) Psych test & Bob's office C Overall Grade A-
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